Hey everyone, how is it going? So I recently mentioned that I might do some posts about writing and I got a very positive response, so first of all thank you for that, and secondly I guess this means you’re about to see several of these posts on my blog. Don’t worry, book blog readers, I promise I won’t be changing the theme of this blog– I’ll just be talking about writing alongside my book reviews and articles. In the coming days, I’ll also be hopefully posting up videos for youtube which cover the same topics, so if you’d prefer to listen to me bumble about writing instead, then you…

Okay guys, so this is more of a question/poll than an actual post. I’ve recently gotten back into writing and querying, as well as doing some buddy writing and other things. A while ago, I uploaded some writing advice posts. At the time I felt like I had said about all I was comfortable saying about writing, especially given that I’m not an expert and I don’t work in the industry. Part of this reservation also stemmed from the fact that, when I started my blog, I was done drafting and editing The Heir of Ink and Magic and had already been through a few rounds of querying. However, I’m now embarking…

Hello, everyone and welcome to a special writing advice post today. I recently got back from YALC, where there was an agent arena that allowed people to pitch to agents, and it got me thinking that now would be a good time to post about the mechanics of that, and how to improve your book’s chances of getting noticed. What is pitching? It’s where you either meet an agent face to face or you do a social media event where you get to discuss your book for a limited amount of time. Face to face pitching is very like a job interview [but with less questions from the interviewer]. The…

Hey everyone, Today is Thursday, which means another bookish post. Do you ever get a book, and then see the overseas cover and wish you’d bought that version instead? In honour of that feeling, I thought today I could go through some UK and US editions of YA books, talking about each cover design and explaining which one I prefer. The US editions will be on the left, the UK ones on the right. Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor                                                                …

Hey everyone, So today I’m continuing with my summary of all the awesome books I’m looking forward to squealing about this year. Since it is such a huge list, I’ve decided to post it up in three month blocks to make it easier to digest/so my fingers don’t fall off from typing it all up at once. If you’re curious I’ve already done a list of the ones being released between Jan and March, which you can check out here. April:  The Fates Divide by Veronica Roth. Released: April 10th I know, I know, the first book, Carve the Mark had some serious and problematic issues [if you want the full story you…

So last Saturday I went to a fortnightly coffeeshop critique session with the university creative writing society. It’s always a great time, ideas flying around, caffeine being inhaled, cakes everywhere, and after a while discussion turned to the idea of killing your darlings [or, as someone rather alarmingly put it ‘smothering your babies’]. If you haven’t heard the term before, it means editing or cutting a piece of your writing that you love, in order to improve the overall piece. It can include wonderful lines of description, certain scenes you love which don’t match with the pacing or people think are irrelevant, or sometimes even whole characters. It’s a thing…

Hey everyone, I’ve been meaning to start doing a weekly post about creative writing. I know a lot of people who read also love to write [myself included] and I thought it would be helpful to talk about some things like feedback, passive versus active, what to do once you’ve written a book/story/poem and why things like adverbs drive me insane.   Today I’m going to talk about feedback. Most people who write have probably already experienced giving and receiving feedback, and if you haven’t, it’s one of those things you’re likely to come across. Feedback can be wonderfully helpful, and I can guarantee that every book on the shelf…